Game of Thrones: Do the spinoffs need familiar cast members?

Should HBO really bring back someone familiar for Game of Thrones’ follow-up series, whatever they may be? Peter Dinklage, at least, isn’t in.

Game of Thrones hasn’t even given us an airdate for season 8 beyond the far-away year of 2019 (it’s only January 2018!), but that hasn’t stopped speculation about the upcoming series (whether that be singular or plural) that should arrive after season 8.

And while it’s been said before by Casey Bloys that he doesn’t want any “sequels” — his word, not ours, straight to The Hollywood Reporter — that hasn’t stopped pretty much anyone from wondering if we might get something that would show the fallout of the massive pair of wars we expect to see in season 8.

That would probably mean getting the cast back together, at least major players. If the show goes the Targaryen victory route, that would include Peter Dinklage, right?

Nope. Here he is speaking to the AP at the Sundance Film Festival:

Granted, he says “I believe” there’s no room in Game of Thrones‘ spinoffs for him, but he does sound like he’s pretty done with answering the question in the first place. (We can’t blame him on that point, either.)

Between this and Bloys’ statement above, we should probably set aside our hopes for House of Cards, Westeros-style, only starting with the part where Claire Underwood takes over instead of taking five seasons to get there. And frankly, that’s not a bad thing. If anything, Star Trek has shown you don’t have to have direct sequels to make things work — you can jump around the timeline, and the fans will follow.

Now, take a look at how big Game of Thrones is. Whatever comes next likely won’t have to bank on someone like Dinklage, or even Emilia Clarke, signing on for several more years of long-term commitments to filming.

Next: Season 8: Will Davos Seaworth live?

Basically, if the spinoffs were so bad that HBO decided to rework them to include cast members we already know, even if they were playing new parts, it might be time to start worrying (even more than you probably already are) about the quality of said spinoffs.